How do I change the properties of a field

[john smith]

A form called "Home Base" is linked to a "Patient extended" table, the
default view is single form. I made 2 subforms : one linked to "Patient
extened" and one linked to "Clinic extended" table both of them are in
datasheet view.

When I edit a subform (any one of them) I see it in a form view and when I
change the fore color, the underline or the font name I can see the effect on
the data.

I then save those changes.

When I Open the Home Base form the changes do not appear.

Where am I going wrong ?

Thank you in advance.

 

[Linq Adams via AccessMonster.com]

"when I change the fore color, the underline or the font name I can see the
effect on the data."

How are you doing this?

"I then save those changes."

How are you doing this "saving?"

No one can help you without a better explanation of how you're trying to do
all this.

 

[John W. Vinson]

A form called "Home Base" is linked to a "Patient extended" table, the
default view is single form. I made 2 subforms : one linked to "Patient
extened" and one linked to "Clinic extended" table both of them are in
datasheet view.

When I edit a subform (any one of them) I see it in a form view and when I
change the fore color, the underline or the font name I can see the effect on
the data.

I then save those changes.

When I Open the Home Base form the changes do not appear.

Where am I going wrong ?

Using datasheet view. It's VERY limited. Forecolors, fonts, underline, etc.
don't apply.

Use a Continuous form for the subform instead.

 

[AccessVandal via AccessMonster.com]

DataSheet View does not the show the control properties fore color, underline
or font type.

If you want to see these changes, you must use the subform in continuous view
not datasheet view.

 

[Fred]

When you re-open the subform, are the changes still there?

Also, is there a possibility that there are more subforms involved and that
there may be confusion about which ones are used by the main form. I.E. the
form that you are making the changes on isn't the one actually used by the
main form?

 

[john smith]

When I only open the subform in form, layout or design view the changes
appear but as soon as I flip to datasheet view the changes don't work.

From the main form it is opened in datasheet view and the changes do not
appear.

Also if I only work with the subform I get all 10 records in the table,
which is what I want. But from the main form, my subform is only composed of
the first record.

How so ?

Thank you.

 

[John W. Vinson]

When I only open the subform in form, layout or design view the changes
appear but as soon as I flip to datasheet view the changes don't work.

Exactly.

Datasheet format is VERY VERY LIMITED. It does not honor font or forecolor or
backcolor changes.

Use a Continuous Form instead.

From the main form it is opened in datasheet view and the changes do not
appear.

So don't use Datasheet; it's incapable of doing what you want.

Also if I only work with the subform I get all 10 records in the table,
which is what I want. But from the main form, my subform is only composed of
the first record.

How so ?

Change the form's Default View property to Continuous.

You may need to also move all the controls up to the top of the design window,
lined up side by side, and drag the bottom of the design window up to the
bottom of the controls. Continuous View will then show multiple instances of
the controls.

 

[Linq Adams via AccessMonster.com]

As John said, Datasheet View forms are very limited in the formatting you can
do.

You can do a few things, using Conditional Formatting, such as changing the
text color (forecolor) and underlining text in a given field by, in Design
View,

Selecting the control
Going to Format - Conditional Formatting
Selecting, from the dropdown, Expression Is
Then entering "Not IsNull([Control Name]}
Selecting the forecolor, underlining, etc.

You cannot change the Font, however. As John indicated, you'd really be
bettre off using a continuous form and tweaking it to look like a datasheet
form.

 

[Linq Adams via AccessMonster.com]

Sorry,

Then entering "Not IsNull([Control Name]}

should have been

Then entering "Not IsNull([Control Name])

Got to get new glasses!

 

[David W. Fenton]

So don't use Datasheet; it's incapable of doing what you want.

Not true. It's just has to be done at runtime through the Datasheet
object and Datasheet properties -- you can't do it by changing the
controls in the form's design view.

If you open the Object Browser and search for FORM in the ACCESS
library (and ignore all the constants that come up), you'll see that
there's a collection of Form properties whose names begin with
"Datasheet". On the other hand, certain things like column widths
are accessible via the .ColumnWidth property of the control (a
property you may think applies only to Combo Boxes, but is actually
applicable to all the controls on a form displayed in Datasheet
view).

There's actually a lot more that you can do in a datasheet than you
might think, but it's just not obvious in comparison to the usual
methods. That said, I don't know for certain if the OP here can do
what he's asking for.

 

[David W. Fenton]

You cannot change the Font, however.

This is just not true.

You can change the font for the datasheet as a whole with the
DatasheetFont properties of the datasheet form. True, you can't
change font style for individual controls without conditional
formatting, but it is not at all true that you can't change
datasheet fonts.

 

[John W. Vinson]

You can change the font for the datasheet as a whole with the
DatasheetFont properties of the datasheet form. True, you can't
change font style for individual controls without conditional
formatting, but it is not at all true that you can't change
datasheet fonts.

You can change the font used in all cells in a datasheet, sure; but you cannot
(to my knowledge) selectively set some fields to show in italics and others in
normal in the same datasheet, which was my interpretation of John's request.

 

[David W. Fenton]

You can change the font used in all cells in a datasheet, sure;
but you cannot (to my knowledge) selectively set some fields to
show in italics and others in normal in the same datasheet

Isn't it true that I said that in the paragraph you're quoting?

, which was my interpretation of John's request.

And probably a correct interpretation.

But I was posting information beyond just the answer to the question
because you made a very categorical statement that might apply to
the specific case in a very limited sense, but would quite
misleading in other situations (i.e., WRONG).